Chongqing’s ＂summer army＂ detonated rural online shopping, and some people ＂received express delivery＂ with a monthly income of 4,000.
The Meteorological Bureau recently issued a warning of high temperature in sunny days, but hundreds of thousands of Chongqing people have already rushed to help the old and bring the young before the arrival of the dog days, and disappeared into the surrounding mountains, enjoying the cool breeze brought by high altitude. This is Chongqing’s huge summer army.
These days, an article describing online shopping during the summer vacation, "I only know that JD.COM is crazy when I live in a summer house", has caused a heated discussion on the Internet. On the one hand, the summer army has brought about a surge in the number of online shopping in rural areas, but the online shopping experience is "half seawater and half flame", which truly records the practical problems faced by rural e-commerce and logistics in the "last mile". Many Chongqing people have commented that they are "too realistic and feel the same way".
The "Summer Army" brought about a surge in online shopping orders in rural areas.
It is understood that Chongqing’s "summer army" is mainly distributed in the local Huangshui, fairy mountain, Black Valley and Jinfo Mountain, and nearby Tongzi, Xishui in Guizhou and Lichuan in Hubei. Most of these places are high-altitude areas above 1200 meters, relying on the original towns and villages, and many summer houses have been built.
The author of the article said that he bought a summer house in Xianyuan Town, Xishui County, Guizhou Province last year. Most of the home decoration and daily necessities were purchased through the Internet, and he placed an order for fifty or sixty times in half a year. According to the reporter’s verification with major e-commerce platforms and express delivery stations, the "Summer Army" made the orders in the summer resort surpass 618 and double 11.
The relevant person in charge of Jingdong Logistics said that in many high-altitude towns and villages at the junction of Chongqing and Guizhou, such as Xianyuan Town and Zhaiba Town in Xishui County, the average daily order soared by three times, and it is expected to last until September, exceeding the single quantity of the town’s double eleven and 618, among which the most ordered goods are rice flour, grain and oil, household appliances and so on.
In fairy mountain Town, a summer resort in Chongqing, the local average daily order volume is more than 5 times. "According to previous years’ experience, the peak order volume of this town may increase by more than 8 times during the summer vacation, which is equivalent to the daily order volume of the whole Wulong County."
It was learned at several express delivery stations in Xishui County that since July, due to the influence of summer vacation and summer vacation, the average daily parcels received have doubled. It is understood that due to the new development of more than 10 summer resorts in the local area, many commodities are large pieces such as furniture and household appliances, and the most common ones are daily necessities.
However, the surge in orders has made the "embarrassing situation" of online shopping in rural areas more obvious. Because the internal traffic in these towns is often underdeveloped, taking online shopping parcels has become a "nightmare" for many urban summer people.
Most packages can only be delivered to the center of town.
The author describes in the article that there are only two express delivery points in Xianyuan, where his summer house is located, both of which are located in the center of the town. However, there are currently more than a dozen summer houses in the town, which are basically built far from the center of the town, one or two kilometers away and seven or eight kilometers away.
"Every summer, people who come from Chongqing, Sichuan are crowded, and there are at least two or three thousand people in each community, which is not a scale, but also very concentrated. So far, except Jingdong Logistics and a small number of postal parcels, all the other couriers are only sent to the two receiving and dispatching points in the town center by default, and everyone in the town must help themselves, no matter how far or near." The author also showed reporters the comments of other owners of the summer house community on the article, and almost everyone complained that it was more painful to receive online shopping parcels.
The reporter saw an article reply. The author said with an elderly neighbor in the community that he had just spent an hour in the town center waiting in line to receive online shopping parcels. Because it was too heavy, he had to go back to the community by motorcycle.
However, a few express delivery companies, such as Jingdong Logistics, delivered the goods to their homes. In order to ensure the delivery, Jingdong Logistics temporarily removed personnel and vehicles from other places for support. Taking Xianyuan Town as an example, it temporarily added two 4.2-meter trucks and five little brothers from JD.COM. In fairy mountain Town, Jingdong Logistics also set up a temporary sales department, and set up six couriers to stay permanently, and added express vehicles to ensure that orders can be delivered in time.
"How many packages should be delivered for summer vacation?"
The person in charge of a courier station in a town in Xishui County told the reporter that major courier companies such as Zhongtong, Shentong, Yuantong, Baishi Express and SF Express are currently unable to send online shopping products to various local summer resorts. "Because the manpower is too limited, all of them can only be sent here. Wait for the buyer to pick it up."
In this regard, Mr. Li, a Chongqing citizen who came here for the summer vacation, believes that in these high-altitude towns and villages, farmers were originally scattered and scattered. In the daily online shopping and distribution, it is understandable to set up only one or two express delivery stations in the town center for their own collection due to the consideration of logistics costs.
However, in summer, "there are thousands of people living in the summer house community, which fully meets the conditions of online shopping and delivery to the community, but the courier companies still choose to throw the goods away in the town center, leaving the embarrassment and trouble to many summer people."
Ms. Liu, a citizen, stressed that the vast majority of people living in the summer house are old people and children, and it is "really unfriendly" to let them walk several kilometers back and forth to pick up express parcels.
According to the reporter’s test, in platforms such as a treasure and a lot, many large and medium-sized items can’t be delivered to the town. Summer people can only go to the county town dozens of kilometers away to pick up the goods, or transport them to the town with extra expensive freight, which limits the e-commerce consumption in rural areas to a certain extent. Many merchants said that they can’t do anything about it.
Moto’s express delivery monthly income is 4000 yuan.
Ms. Guo’s parents spend the summer in Yundi Community of Huangshui, which is 2 kilometers away from the town. Ms. Guo told reporters that in the past few years, "only JD.COM can send it to the door of the community, and other couriers don’t send it". Every time I buy something online for the summer house, my parents can only take the local farmer’s motorcycle to pick up the parcel; "or send it to your home in Chongqing first, and then take it with you when you drive to Huangshui."
Some netizens even said in the reply to the article that his friend’s father drove a motorcycle to help his neighbors pick up parcels at the town post station when he went out for the summer vacation, and each order was 5-10 yuan, which earned more than 4,000 yuan in January.
Wu Popo, who is in fairy mountain for the summer vacation, said that taking the motorcycle to pick up the parcel was a helpless move. "It’s too far away, and it’s not delivered to the door. Sometimes things bought online are only tens of dollars, and it’s more than a dozen dollars to get a parcel back and forth. It’s not worthwhile to think of it."
Why is there a big difference in the "last mile" in rural areas?
After checking with many relatives and friends who went out for the summer vacation, the reporter found that only a few packages such as JD.COM could be delivered to the summer vacation community in Huangshui, fairy mountain, Tongzi and Xishui. Then, in the "last mile of the countryside", why is there such a big difference in sending parcels?
A logistics industry expert told reporters that in fact, door-to-door delivery is one of the most concerned needs of consumers for express delivery service, but it is also a major pain point in the logistics industry at present, which requires a long-term and large amount of resources investment by enterprises, and also needs to cooperate with comprehensive enterprise management and employee welfare protection. Especially in remote areas, rural areas and other areas with relatively low order density, "home delivery" is a test of the strategic layout, development concept and development planning of enterprises. In this incident, we can see that the value of Jingdong Logistics in laying out logistics infrastructure, continuously investing in technology and building its own staff team is emerging.
It can also be seen from netizens’ comments that Jingdong Logistics benefits from its own distribution team and logistics base, which can be deployed independently in terms of management, supply chain and resources.
At the same time, the pursuit of profit and the high staff turnover rate of franchise outlets are also a reason why it is difficult to advance the last mile in rural areas. Yang Daqing, an expert in the logistics industry, also told the media that in the past two years, the price war in the express delivery industry has intensified, and the increase in various commercial costs has caused the business scale of express delivery outlets to increase without increasing profits, resulting in high mobility and high turnover rate of first-line outlets.
Recently, on July 14th, an executive meeting of the State Council was held to determine the measures to improve the rural delivery logistics system to better meet the needs of farmers’ production and life. Perhaps from the "experience" of the summer army going south, we can see what work should be done first to solve the last mile in the countryside.
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